DNA Nanotechnology for Multimodal Synergistic Theranostics

Abstract

Over the past decade, DNA nanotechnology has developed rapidly due to its unique characteristics, such as excellent biocompatibility, high programmability, good predictability, automatically chemical synthesis, and so on. So far, a variety of DNA-based nanostructures, from small to large and simple to complex, have been designed and synthesized with controllable size and shape in one, two, or three dimensions. Therefore, DNA has become a kind of competitive materials for biosensing, bioimaging and biomedicine. In particular, the integration of DNA nanotechnology with multimodal synergistic theranostics can not only achieve accurate cancer diagnosis by the sensitive and accurate detection of cancer biomarkers, but also achieve enhanced anti-cancer therapeutic efficacy, which promote the development of DNA nanotechnology and nanomedicine. In this review, we first give a comprehensive introduction of DNA nanotechnology, and then summarize the DNA self-assembly and amplification strategies for the construction of functional nanoplatforms for multimodal synergistic theranostics. Finally, the challenges and opportunities faced by DNA nanotechnology in biomedicine are discussed.

Recent Advances in DNA Nanostructure‐enabled Drug Delivery

“…[54,57] The critical step in multimodal therapy is to combine different therapeutics in a delivery system. [58] Fortunately, DNA nanostructures hold unprecedented ability to load various therapeutic payloads, due to their abundant interaction forces in interacting with other chemical entities. Different therapeutic agents can be integrated into a single system by DNA nanostructures via either covalent or non-covalent interactions.…”

“…Compared with monotherapy, multimodal therapy in which therapeutic methods of different mechanisms are used synergistically, can maintain the advantages of each method and at the same time minimize the side effects [54,57] . The critical step in multimodal therapy is to combine different therapeutics in a delivery system [58] . Fortunately, DNA nanostructures hold unprecedented ability to load various therapeutic payloads, due to their abundant interaction forces in interacting with other chemical entities.…”

Assembling aggregation‐induced emission with natural DNA to maximize donor/acceptor ratio for efficient light‐harvesting antennae

“…Natural DNA inherently owns a series of binding interactions (e.g., electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic) due to the presence of phosphate groups, nitrogenous bases, and deoxyribose sugar. [22][23][24][25][26][27] For a helical turn consisting of 10 base pairs (∼3.4 nm), there are 20 negatively charged phosphate groups, a hydrophobic major groove of ∼1.2 nm wide, and a hydrophobic minor groove of ∼0.6 nm F I G U R E 1 Schematic illustration of dense binding of aggregationinduced emission (AIE) donors into natural DNA for constructing an efficient light-harvesting system.…”

“…Natural DNA inherently owns a series of binding interactions (e.g., electrostatic, hydrogen bonding, and hydrophobic) due to the presence of phosphate groups, nitrogenous bases, and deoxyribose sugar. [ 22–27 ] For a helical turn consisting of 10 base pairs (∼3.4 nm), there are 20 negatively charged phosphate groups, a hydrophobic major groove of ∼1.2 nm wide, and a hydrophobic minor groove of ∼0.6 nm wide. [ 26 ] In principle, the effective distance of Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) is ∼10 nm, and thus 30 base pairs (∼60 phosphate groups) could be extended in the opposite directions along the DNA backbone with a minor groove as the center.…”

Programmable, Universal DNAzyme Amplifier Supporting Pancreatic Cancer-Related miRNAs Detection

“…Protease-assisted signal amplification is susceptible to external conditions, resulting in a poor stability, which may even increase the risk of false positive or false negative signals [25]. In contrast, amplification techniques based on the self-assembly of nucleic acid molecules are attractive because of its flexible, simple, and convenient design and good stability [26].…”